A well-known procedure is the dental restoration of a partially or wholly edentulous patient with artificial dentition. Typically, a dental implant is seated into the bone of a patient's jaw. The exterior of the dental implant will have a series of threads that assist in seating the dental implant in the bone and hold the dental implant to the bone. The dental implant includes a socket, e.g., a bore, which is accessible through the overlying or surrounding gum tissue for receiving and supporting one or more attachments or components such as an abutment, which, in turn, are useful to fabricate and support prosthodontic restorations. The dental implant generally includes a threaded bore to receive a retaining screw for holding mating components therein. Dental implant procedures may use a variety of implanting modalities, for example, blade, threaded implant, or smooth push-in implant to attach the prosthetics.
Within the dental implant industry, there is a condition termed peri-implantitis that generally occurs and is chronic to dental implants over a period of time. This condition is brought on by bacteria and or debris attached to or attaching to the surfaces of the implant, eventually causing resorption of the surrounding bone leading to implant compromise or failure. This condition is especially prevalent to threaded implants, which are dominant within the industry market and the most difficult to clean, debride, and resurface for treatment.
Current treatment options for peri-implantitis are limited. One treatment option is scraping the implant with existing tooling. This technique yields minimal results as the thread form of an implant does not allow access to most of the debris and bacteria. This technique requires hours of chair time for a patient with questionable results. Another treatment option is the use of oral debridement chemicals. However, such chemicals cannot penetrate the bacteria's buildup and therefore also yield questionable results. Another technique is use of brushes and wire tools. Brushes and wire tools cannot provide the adequate pressures necessary to cut away the buildup also yielding unsatisfactory results.
Thus, there is a need for a dental tool that facilitates treatment of peri-implantis in dental implants. There is a further need for a dental tool that may resurface the thread forms of a dental implant. There is also a need for a dental tool that allows cleaning of a dental implant in an efficient manner.